England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wickham St Paul All Saints

The Parish

The parish of Wickham St Paul lies in the extreme north of Essex not too far from its border with neighbouring Suffolk. Wickham St Paul is located roughly 4 miles north of the market town of Halstead and stands just under a mile west of the A131 road which links Halstead through to Sudbury in Suffolk. Wickham St Paul is roughly triangular in shape with a lengthy northwards extension all built around a Y-shaped junction of lanes where sits the extensive village green of which the village is so proud. Wickham St Paul occupies land which is described as extremely fertile by early gazetteers so it is not surprising that in a largely arable county Wickham St Paul is very much devoted to the growing of crops, especially cereals. Wickham St Paul sits on a minor watershed with water from differing directions making its way eventually to the Stour either by the Belchamp Brook or the Colne, the Stour forms the county border with Suffolk virtually all the way to the estuary at Manningtree before reaching the North Sea between the twin ports of Felixstowe & Harwich. Wickham St Paul is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in gently undulating terrain, a spot height of 84 metres within the village being the highest ground for some distance. Parishes in this area are often fairly small and Wickham St Paul covering just over 1,200 acres was not exceptional, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 450 parishioners. Domesday Wickham St Paul was equally a mid-sized rural manor shared between the Canons of London St Paul and Richard the son of Count Gilbert, their cumulative assets of 7 ploughs backed by meadows and woodland were typical of this size of manor.

The Church

All Saints' church sits almost a half mile northwest of the village on Church Road and accompanying the Hall. Despite it not being the earliest fabric one's eye is almost always drawn to the brick western tower, the brick interlaced into a diaper pattern with blue brick. The tower is well documented with a bequest of 1505 granting the funds for its construction, it certainly is a focal point for the church. The tower stands next to a main body which is from the 14th century with nave, chancel and southern porch all of this vintage in typical Perpendicular styling from the later part of that century. The church received a substantial restoration in 1866 which saw the addition of the northern transept and the vestry, in addition there were many changes to the chancel both internally, with encaustic tiles, and externally. Church Road has space for on-street parking to the south of the site, the church is largely screened from the road by mature trees and the churchyard is raised slightly above road height reached by a gently sloping pathway. There are further trees around the borders of the churchyard but these do not inconvenience the photographer.